Topic of the Week - Winter Egg Laying

[bobbi-j]

@aart To answer your snarky question and criticism, I brought the hens into the house when there was snow on the ground and temperatures were so cold that their water was freezing within about an hour. They were in a part of the house that stays about 60 degrees in the winter. They seemed to enjoy it and my laying hen has never missed a day without laying an egg, and they're all four healthy birds, so I don't think warming them up for an hour was particularly unhealthy.

An hour, or a couple of hours - it's really not necessary if they are out of the elements and don't have any draft blowing directly on them. The point Aart was trying to make is, they have their nice warm down coats on and are acclimated to the cooler weather. Bringing them in is probably more uncomfortable for them than remaining in consistent temperatures.

If you're worried about their water freezing, you could bring them warm water a few times a day since you're home anyway. Or, if you frequently get freezing water, a heated dog dish isn't that expensive.

 

[Roosterbreaux]

Don't force them to lay in the Winter using artificial light and/or mash as
almost all the time it shortens both their life and their egg laying life. (}=<O})
Let nature take it's course and if they lay naturally in the Winter they'll be ok. (};>D})

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Agreed. I have an electric tea kettle that I use to defrost my waterers. It melts the ice and gives them a warm drink. It's super easy.

 

[EasterEggr]

- Do or don't you supplement light to keep your hens in production over winter?

Yes. I've had chickens for almost 2 years now. Living in Idaho I've got 8 hens all laying throughout the winter. I get 7 - 8 eggs a day. I've built the 2 level coop in a corner of a heated shop with three doors on the lower level out to the covered run and nest boxes on upper level. The shop stays at about 50-55 degrees F on an oil heater and the coop has a "window" of chicken wire into the shop right about the height of the nesting boxes. I put a LED light next to the coop "window" on a timer that shuts off at 10 pm and turns on at 6 am every day.

- Tips for keeping winter layers happy and healthy?

I feel like my hens are spoiled like crazy, they always have access to layer feed and water. I pour cracked corn in a separate trough each day which they all come running to and gobble up like it's candy. I always throw in my unused produce and a scratch seed block to keep them occupied and they have about 150 sq ft of space to roam outside that's covered and 100 sq ft inside that's warm. They go outside every morning and come in when they feel like it.

I'm curious to know why some people think "giving the hens a break" or "letting nature take it's course" is so important. Chickens were bred for this. Why shouldn't I keep them laying? I don't see how giving them light and food is abusive. It's not like I'm forcing them to do anything.

 

[aart]

I'm curious to know why some people think "giving the hens a break" or "letting nature take it's course" is so important. Chickens were bred for this. Why shouldn't I keep them laying? I don't see how giving them light and food is abusive. It's not like I'm forcing them to do anything.

Exposing them to 'unnatural' periods of light is 'forcing' them.......
.....if they didn't have the extra 'daylight' length their bodies wouldn't mature/release ova to be laid as the eggs we gather, eat, and sell.

Not allowing them to 'rest and replenish' over winter can(tho not gauranteed) cause problems in the entire body and the reproductive system.
Not sure I'd call it 'abuse', but it can indeed be hard on their bodies.

 

[Roosterbreaux]

Here you go read this:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chickens-winter-egg-laying-and-lighting

It may help as you are giving them artificial light for 16 hours a day.

It seems the pros of giving them their well deserved rest through
the Winter outweigh the cons of forcing them to lay all year long.

You should really remove the light and the mash out of their diet

I am familiar with chickens laying and brooding habits, on and off, for over 50
years now and I have never given them artificial lights, as this is what stimulates
their pineal gland, which causes them lay. Some of the hens will lay and even
brood(12 eggs or more) well all year long, most however will not. Their egg
"production" will and should slow down through the months of short daylight.
However as stated before a few will lay well all year long.

I have taken care of commercial laying barns in the past and they keep the lights
on for 20 to 24 hours a day and it tends to cause a lot of turnover in the flock.
There is always a brooding shack on the facility to compensate for the turnover.
The brooding shack is much smaller and kept much cleaner than the laying barns.

One other point, cracked corn has very little, if any, nutritional value at all as all the
moisture has dried away and the germ is dried out of the cracked kernel . Then it
becomes just a filler. Whereas whole corn is very nutritional for the fact that the
moisture helps maintain the healthy goodness, the germ. The instant the germ is
cracked it starts losing it's goodness . So if it's been cracked and bagged, sitting at a
feed store, and stored there, then stored at your place, there is not much nutrition left.
Its pretty much just junk food filler. However if you do switch to whole kernel corn you
should add some very fine gravel or grit with it as whole corn is a little bit harder for them
to digest. Whole corn will help also to keep them warmer during the cold Winter months.




Best advice "Let nature take it's course.".

Hope this helps,
Roosterbreaux ({(<;{)

 

[gadus]

Had a "winter production" question on my mind and was glad to find this thread in a search...

I have followed some peoples' advice here and started turning on a 40 watt bulb back in early November, for 14 hrs/day total light. The lights come on at 4:30 and off at 6:30, an attempt at adding equal light in the morning and evening. I leave the light on the whole day as sometimes I forget to turn off and on (timer to be installed).

None of which is to say that I might not come around the notion that hens should be allowed a "natural" break in the colder, darker months. My question was whether the continued good laying, despite the cold, was a feature of their youth (they were hatched in late April) or some condition I was creating-or a combination of the two.

I was also wondering if the really mild winter here in Maine was a factor; almost no snow and temps generally above freezing for all but the wee hours.

I have been getting from 12-15 eggs a day from 18 birds-six super layers, six better than average layers and six average layers. Currently a BO is broody so technically I'm down to 17.

An Americauna has surprised me by laying about 6 eggs/week, though not in the nest boxes; instead, like clockwork, she flies over the run fence and ducks under the edge of an old mattress lying on the ground

Feed is 22% game feed with kitchen scraps two times a week; they are let out in afternoons to free range in my (frozen) garden and woods. I have been giving them scratch but will probably suspend the practice (good tidbit re cracked vs. whole corn!)

There is no insulation-another piece of advice I've gleaned from this site, which seems a thoroughly sound practice.

As I am currently working in my basement shop, I'm able to check eggs several times a day; on really cold days, I've occasionally gotten a split shell but we eat those and sell (most of) the others.

 

[aart]

...... My question was whether the continued good laying, despite the cold, was a feature of their youth (they were hatched in late April) or some condition I was creating-or a combination of the two.

I was also wondering if the really mild winter here in Maine was a factor; almost no snow and temps generally above freezing for all but the wee hours.

Partly youth, the light definitely if it was fairly consistent.....never had a timer on it all winter?

Not the temps, it's the light triggering hormone production.

 

[icanhazchikn]

Just curious, our winter has been really weird here in TN. For the past couple of weeks in January, daily temps were in the 60s and even 70s some days. The chickens were eating their regular feed along with scratch and some veggies, compost from the house. Before winter four chickens were laying 6-7 eggs a day. At the moment we're getting 1 egg every couple of days.

Why is it that even with the weather warmer for a couple of weeks, they didn't go back to laying more eggs?
Just trying to understand how this works. Now that temps are back in the 40s I can understand, but this is still my first year and winter with chickens of egg laying age.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Once again,
Temperature has nothing to do with it unless it goes from plus 60 to minus 60 in a couple days.
Daylength, or more accurately, length of day vs. length of night as perceived by the pineal gland determines sexual maturity and egg laying.
Increasing day length vis a vis decreasing darkness means that eggs will be forthcoming.
It could be warm year round but if one is in the northern or southern hemisphere, day/night lengths will vary throughout the year. All animals reproduction is predicated by this cycle regardless of temperature.

I tracked egg laying on spreadsheets for 5 flocks of birds last winter and there was no correlation between temperature and production.
It just happens to be colder when days are short in most places. People tend to translate that to temperature having an impact on production.